Number of results to display per page
Search Results
72. Iran: What Does Ahmadi-Nejad's Victory Mean?
- Publication Date:
- 08-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The surprise election of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, who is being sworn in as president this week, has given rise to dire predictions about Iran's domestic and foreign policies and relations with the U.S. and the European Union. There are reasons for concern. Based on his rhetoric, past performance, and the company he keeps, Ahmadi-Nejad appears a throwback to the revolution's early days: more ideological, less pragmatic, and anti- American. But for the West, and the U.S. in particular, to reach and act upon hasty conclusions would be wrong. Iran is governed by complex institutions and competing power centres that inherently favour continuity over change. More importantly , none of the fundamentals has changed: the regime is not about to collapse; it holds pivotal cards on Iraq and nuclear proliferation; and any chance of modifying its behaviour will come, if at all, through serious, coordinated EU and U.S. efforts to engage it.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Iran, and Middle East
73. Swaziland: The Clock Is Ticking
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Swaziland has been an absolute monarchy for more than 30 years, with a royal leadership that ignores worsening social ills and a small elite that is often openly corrupt. A new constitution that further codifies broad royal powers and privileges is in the final stages of preparation. Political violence is still more talked about than actual but frustration is building. Multilateral African institutions, the EU and key countries like South Africa and the U.S. have been too willing to accept the royalists' line that any change must come very slowly. More pressure from the outside is needed to help pro-reform elements inside the country bring back a constitutional monarchy and genuine democracy that are the best guarantees Swazi instability will not eventually infect the region.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, South Africa, and Swaziland
74. US Trade Policy in 2005
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- Some time ago, Fred Bergsten and I were talking about the fact that, if trade liberalization is to move forward and retrogression is to be prevented, the focus of the policy community and the public on the benefits of trade-in the full sense, including imports-and on the issues around trade needs to increase. The adverse effects trade has on some people are very keenly felt and often lead to vociferous opposition, while the benefits of trade for a far greater number of people are diffuse and usually little if at all understood-for example, by consumers-and seldom generate political activity on behalf of trade.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States
75. Afghan Update: Sept. 5 - Oct. 2, 2005
- Author:
- Joseph Button
- Publication Date:
- 10-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- U.S. led coalition forces killed 12 militants and arrested nine others in a raid in Zabul province on Sept. 5. Coalition forces did not suffer any casualties. U.S. military officials said the militants used their hideout location to stage attacks before the upcoming Sept. 18 elections. In a remote area of Kandahar province, U.S. and Afghan forces killed 13 Taliban fighters and captured more than a dozen more on Sept. 5. The U.S.-led assault targeted Taliban rebels suspected of the murder of Abduallah Kalid, a candidate for the upcoming elections.
- Topic:
- Human Welfare, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, and Taliban
76. Current List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Other Terrorist Organizations
- Author:
- Mark Burgess
- Publication Date:
- 08-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- The U.S. State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) began in 1997 as a method of tracking down and striking back against specific terrorist groups around the world. FTOs are designated as such based on a demonstrated capability and/or willingness to engage in terrorist methods that threaten the U.S. national security interests. These methods include attacks on U.S. nationals, and American national defense, military, diplomatic, and economic interests. The FTO list provides the U.S. government with the legal authority to conduct prosecutions against U.S. citizens, or foreign nationals within the country, for aiding — financially, ideologically or logistically — any designated FTO. FTO designation can also mean certain members or representatives of the designated terror group can be denied entry to the United States through visa rejection or other means. The United States also maintains the authority to compel U.S. financial institutions to freeze any assets linked to an FTO and to report them to the U.S. Department of the Treasury pursuant to Executive Order 13244.
- Topic:
- Human Welfare, Politics, Religion, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States
77. Bans, Tests and Alchemy: Food Safety Standards and Ugandan Fish Export
- Author:
- Stefano Ponte
- Publication Date:
- 10-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Fish exports are the second largest foreign exchange earner in Uganda. When Uganda's fish export industry started to operate in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one may have thought that fish was being turned into gold. From an export value of just over one million US$ in 1990, the mighty Nile Perch had earned the country over 45 million US$ just six years later. But alchemy proved to be more than the quest of the philosophers' stone to change base metals into gold. From 1997 to 2000, the industry experienced a series of import bans, imposed by the EU on grounds of food safety. Despite claims to the contrary, the EU did not provide scientific proof that fish was actually 'unsafe'. Rather, the poor performance of Uganda's regulatory and monitoring system was used as a justification. The 'system', as the characters of an allegory, has no individual personality and is the embodiment of the moral qualities that 'the consumer' expects from 'responsible operators' in the fish sector. Only by fixing this system of regulations and inspections, and by performing the ritual of laboratory testing did the Ugandan industry regain its status as a 'safe' source of fish. Fish exports now earn almost 90 million US$ to the country. This apparent success story was achieved by a common front comprising government authorities and the processing industry, a high level of private-public collaboration not often seen in East Africa. Yet, important chunks of the regulatory and monitoring system exist only on paper. Furthermore, the system is supposed to achieve a series of contradictory objectives: to facilitate efficient logistics and ensure food safety; to match market demand and take care of sustainability; to implement a top-down food safety monitoring system and a bottom-up fisheries co-management system. This means that at least some food safety-related operations have to be carried out as 'rituals of verification'. Given the importance of microbiological tests and laboratories in the food safety compliance system, alchemic rituals are perhaps a more appropriate metaphor. While the white coats and advanced machinery of present-day alchemists reassure insecure European regulators and consumers, it leaves the Ugandan fish industry in a vulnerable position. In Uganda, fish can now be turned into gold again – but for how long?
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- Uganda, Africa, United States, and East Africa
78. Growth in the Exclusion of Employer Health Premiums
- Author:
- Adam Carasso
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Urban Institute
- Abstract:
- The single largest tax expenditure in the federal budget is the employer exclusion of contributions for medical insurance premiums and medical care from employee income taxes. In fiscal year 2005, the Office of Management and Budget estimates this exclusion is worth $112 billion. If the payroll tax exclusion component were also counted here, the total would be significantly higher. (For details, please see Len Burman, Cori Uccello, Laura Wheaton, and Deborah Kobes, ''Tax Incentives for Health Insurance,'' Discussion Paper No. 12, Washington, DC: The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, May 2003.)
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
79. Well Being and Unemployment in Russian in the 1990's: Can Society's Suffering Be Individuals' Solace?
- Author:
- Andrew; Gaddy Eggers
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- This paper studies the effect of regional unemployment rates on subjective well-being in post-Soviet Russia. Research conducted in Europe and the United States has documented that higher unemployment rates lead to lower reported life-satisfaction. By contrast, our Russian study finds a small but significant effect in the other direction. We estimate that du ring the period of our study (1995-2001), each percentage point increase in the local unemployment rate was correlated with the average well-being of people in the region increasing by an amount equivalent to moving 2% of the population up one level in life satisfaction measured on a five-point scale. Our intuition is that the so-called comparison effect drives this result: when individuals observe their peers suffering in a troubled economy, they lower their standards of what is good enough. All else equal, they thus perceive themselves to be better off in worse times. In highlighting the dependence of subjective well-being scores on expectations and reference groups, we sound a note of caution against using happiness data from economies in crisis to draw macroeconomic policy conclusions.
- Topic:
- Economics and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, Asia, and Soviet Union
80. The Rise of New Immigrant Gateways
- Author:
- Audrey Singer
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- The United States is in the midst of a wave of unprecedented immigration. Immigrants comprised 11.1 percent of the U.S. population in 2000. During the 1990s alone, the foreign-born population grew by 11.3 million, or 57.4 percent, bringing the Census 2000 count of immigrants to 31.1 million. The rapidity of this influx, coupled with its sheer size, means that American society will con- front momentous social, cultural, and political change during the coming decades and generations.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Human Welfare, and Migration
- Political Geography:
- United States